Feral

No longer active, do not use in future stories or plots

File:Silvia Aresco VanguardID.png
Feral
Player: Blackbird
Origin:	Technology
Archetype:	Brute/Stalker/Tanker
Security Level:	50
Personal Data
Real Name:	Silvia Aresco
Known Aliases:	Furball, Feral Storm, Feral Strike, Feral Strength
Species:	Human
Age:	50
Height:	4'11"*
Weight:	116lbs
Eye Color:	hazel
Hair Color:	auburn
Biographical Data
Nationality:	American
Occupation:	Materials Development Scientist
Place of Birth:	Ames, IA, USA
Base of Operations:	Kallisti Wharf
Marital Status:	Single
Known Relatives:	Parents, Cousins
Known Powers
None
Known Abilities
Scientist and Researcher
Equipment
Powered Armor
No additional information available.

Briefly

Silvia Aresco, better known as Feral, has been around the block and through the wringer. Initially landing in the Rogue Isles courtesy of a bureaucratic disaster that left her without a passport, she has adapted and moved onward and upward. Getting her start in researching foil shielding for spacecraft and constructing hyper-realistic costumes for Hollywood, she quickly ended up building bullet resistant armor for her own protection, which developed into full fledged powered armor. Despite being fully licensed and her nom de plume, she has remained adamant for years that she's not part of the 'super' set on either side of the coin. Most of her work revolves around well past bleeding edge materials development and manufacturing, generally for government clients, though she has a policy of selling certain items to anyone who can legally pay for it. (Where the money actually came from, not her problem.)

She is an expert in numerous scientific disciplines including materials research and development, aerospace materials, chemistry, applied and quantum physics, and some psychology topics.

While it is easy to assume this Silvia is unchanged, she is not. She is one of the few survivors of a parallel dimension which landed here during the quantum wave collapse.

Public Information

Silvia owns and operates a number of distinct business entities including Advanced SFX Limited (film costuming and special effects) founded in 2006, ECAMS (Engineered Composites And Materials Sciences) LLC (general materials research and development) founded in 2009, and Aresco Consulting Services (government contracting) founded in 2011. She provides a advanced biocompatible composites alloys for use in tailored prosthetics through Advanced SFX on a limited basis. ACS is listed as a prime or sole contractor on dozens of spaceflights, almost exclusively for radiation and heat shielding material and occasionally wire. Vanguard lists ECAMS as the sole contractor for developing armor for combat vehicles including tanks.

She holds an extraordinary number of advanced degrees:

• BS in Applied Physics from University of Rhode Island
• BEng in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Manchester, England
• MSc in Advanced Aerospace Materials Engineering from The University of Manchester, England
• PhD in Materials from The University of Manchester, England
  • Thesis: Use of crystalline alignment to reduce weight in foil shielding applications
• PhD in Electrical Engineering from The University of Manchester, England
  • Thesis: Use and application of copper-based imitation tendons for control of surfaces
• PhD in Materials Sciences from Iowa State University (2018, grant)
  • Thesis: use of novel polyethylene aerosols to improve caustic fluid tolerances of ballistic fabrics
• Honorary MPhil in Electrical Engineering from The University of Manchester, England
  • Awarded for independent contributions to medical science through technology.
• Honorary PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University of Rhode Island
  • Awarded for independent contributions to medical science through technology.

She has also received a number of highly prestigious awards for her scientific work - and declined far more - including the June Wilson Award for her biocompatible composites, the Royal Aeronautical Society Written Paper Award twice (2003, 2017,) the Verena Winifred Holmes Award, ASME Fellow, the ASME Adaptive Structures and Materials award, the ASME Kate Gleason medal, the ASME Warner T. Koiter medal, and the ASME Spirit of St. Louis medal. She publishes very infrequently, and never accepts or presents in person. Her very few public appearances and lectures have always been by video conference.

She is also known to have been involved as a consulting researcher with Portal Corporation from 2011 until 2014, and began working with them intermittently again in 2020. However, the projects she has worked on are non-public aside from a published paper on the use of quasicrystals to increase superconductor operating temperature ranges. She has also regularly been seen in public with a Vanguard ID, relating primarily to her contracting work.

It is not only public information but widely known that Silvia is a 'baseline' human. Aside from her short stature, she has no mutations and no inherent powers.

History

Silvia was born in Ames, IA in 1973 and had a largely normal and unremarkable life, raised on a farm approximately 30 minutes north of Ames proper. Her father was a large animal veterinarian and her mother was a soil chemist, both instilling a strong sense of curiosity and passion for science. Despite Iowa State University being local and having an excellent physics program, the costs were too high, and the University of Rhode Island offered her a 75% scholarship. While she excelled in applied physics, she was inspired by the potential of combining it with mechanical engineering in spaceflight. Through an exchange program, she was offered a full-ride at the University of Manchester to pursue a Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering; this was extended to allow her to pursue Masters of Science in Aerospace Materials engineering when her concept for an ultra-thin conductor brought in an extremely large grant. While that research failed to produce results, she came up with an idea for reducing the thickness and weight of heat shielding, the grants fully covering her tuition. Halfway through her doctoral research, she added Electrical Engineering as a dual track, realizing her creation would need a control system that nearly but didn't quite exist yet. During her time in the UK, she traveled extremely frequently to the point where her passport had two additions for all the student visa stamps. Upon completing her second doctorate, she realized that the special effects and costuming business she'd started on the side, plus her other work, simply wasn't going to be in much demand in Europe and attempted to move back to the US. Upon her arrival, a customs and immigration officer immediately suspected her passport which was due to expire in less than a week and confiscated it as a forgery. The UK refused to accept her without a passport as well, and after several days, she was deported to the Rogue Isles as the only country willing to receive her. She ultimately ended up in Nerva, which was not kind to her, getting caught by a stray bullet during a shootout in her first month. Having experimented with shielding for spaceflight, she quickly developed an ordinary looking fabric that was bullet resistant. However, the harassment and attempted thefts as she tried to amass equipment to build her costuming business continued to escalate. Ultimately leading her to start developing props and costumes that looked like feared villains. By the time the empty suits had been figured out, she had developed her first prototype power armor, a hyper-realistic anthropomorphic tiger.

Throughout her time in the Rogue Isles, Silvia remained completely unrestricted by sanctions, refusing to have anything to do with Arachnos beyond the minimum mandatory paperwork. Initially her activities were limited to protecting her own base of operations, but quickly expanded to 'clearing out' a buffer area. The appearance and electrical discharge led to the locals coining her Feral Storm, and lacking a better idea, it stuck. While she openly worked with villains, she only did so against groups that were obvious threats to ordinary people and not simply robbing banks or chasing power.

In 2008, an administrative judge finally ruled in her favor. Taking her passport for further examination was an acceptable course of action. But it had been unexpired when she entered, and holding her past the point it expired was completely unlawful. Regardless of suspicions, ICE could only compare the date of arrival against the expiration date of a citizen's passport. They could not deport someone if the passport expired while they were investigating, nor could they use the expiration as an excuse to halt the evaluation. Additionally, several of the officials involved lost their qualified immunity, making them personally liable. (And you better believe she sued them all.) Being well established in the Isles, she did not immediately move back to the US and instead began ferrying back and forth frequently.

Already having extensive government contacts through ESA, NASA, and JAXA, she was able to quickly expand her contracting to additional develop materials and manufacturing processes for ever more advanced armor and personal protection equipment. As both an independent and sole contractor, she quickly amassed substantial wealth along with a reputation of exceeding specifications while delivering on time and under budget. This wealth enabled her to continue to develop her 'hobby' projects like her armor.

Despite completely eschewing the 'capes and cowls' set, Silvia routinely got out her increasingly powerful armors as a form of stress relief and testing, both in Paragon and Etoille. Initially it was believed she planned to sell the power technology to armed forces and governments, but she has been adamant that she will only sell 'passives' like ceramics, ballistic fabrics, and alloys. She is extremely guarded about the period between 2007 and 2014. However, there are innumerable videos and news stories about Feral. Based on the evidence, her armor entered a period of extremely rapid development between 2007 and 2012 with effective power almost doubling annually. By late 2012, it was very clear that her power was on par with the likes of Statesman.

She essentially disappeared in December of 2012, and there were unconfirmed rumors of her being killed circulating in January of 2013. She turned up again, out of armor, working with something classified at Portal Corp later in 2013. Sometime in 2014, she left New England and quietly moved back to Iowa. For most of the time, she only popped up as a mention or peer reviewer in journals, or in government contracts. In 2016, she was approached by NIST and Iowa State, and over the next two years 'casually' earned a third doctorate, giving a brief commencement speech by video link to the class of 2018. This time her thesis was on developing a novel aerosolized compound that could be applied to ballistic weaves, solving the problem of attacks with caustic chemicals and acids for police officers.

While working at Iowa State, she began acquiring substantial real estate in Kallisti Wharf. By 2019 she had acquired nearly an entire block in the Old Slough neighborhood, and moved into one of the larger buildings. It was impossible to hide her return from the authorities due to both the power requirements and extreme amounts of hazardous materials. She obtained new licenses in Paragon quietly, with some of them being classified or suppressed on national security grounds. The first new sighting of Feral was fighting back a Rikti attack in Kallisti in late 2019, clearly identifiable in the 'Kitty' armor she had been frequently photographed in back in 2007. There were no further sightings until 2020, when she was videoed in a 'Minny' in the Rikti War Zone numerous times over several weeks. As with before, people remained unaware that it was powered armor, instead theorizing that Feral was some sort of magic shapeshifter or similar.

These intermittent but very infrequent sightings continued from 2020 to late 2023, almost entirely as the snow leopard or minotaur, with no identifiable pattern. In late 2023, the sightings suddenly became more frequent - sometimes multiple times a day - generally around Kallisti, Nerva, Peregrine, and the Rikti War Zone. Finally acknowledging her full return in December of 2023 when she joined an assault on the Rikti Mothership in a 'Minny.' Proving that not only had she not lost a beat, but she'd upgraded even further, ripping several large holes in the Rikti ship unassisted. Feral was back.

Appearance

Out of Costume

Silvia would be the very definition of 'average midwesterner' if it weren't for her fashion and height. She has dirty auburn hair which has developed some gray streaks, hazel eyes, and wears glasses. However, she stands a whole 4'11" (150cm) wearing platforms and heels and is 4'9" without them - which is a 'never' occurrence. Without exception, she wears glasses with brightly colored frames, heeled platform boots, and brightly colored jackets. Most typically she prefers jeans and a t-shirt but has been known to do business casual under protest.

In Costume as Feral

Part of what has confounded people from definitively identifying her is that she has built numerous suits over the years with drastically different appearances and physical characteristics. Most commonly when socializing, she is found in 'Minny' or 'Kitty.' However, she is known to have no less than 9 *distinct* designs excluding the clothing or armor, and some of these designs have significant variances despite being in the same 'family.'

• Minny - 9 to 10 foot tall full Minotaur with black fur, particularly identifiable by 'shod' hooves. Armor and outfits vary widely from casual to 'walking tank.'
• Kitty - 7 to 8 foot tall anthropomorphic snow leopard; has been seen both with digitigrade feline legs and plantigrade with heels. Armor and outfits vary widely.
• Tiggy - 7 to 9 foot tall anthropomorphic Siberian Tiger; all of these have full-body armor save the head and lower legs
• Lizzy - 8 to 10 foot tall anthropomorphic lizard or dragon; armor and outfits usually do not cover hands or sleeves
• Stabby - 7 to 8 foot tall anthropomorphic Black Panther (Jaguar variant); known to be equipped with advanced stealth technology
• Jaggy - 9 foot tall anthropomorphic Jaguar; known to be equipped with advanced stealth technology
• Draggy - 10 foot tall, massive anthropomorphic dragon; very rarely seen. Estimated to weigh over 3,000kg.
• Wildy - 9 to 10 foot tall full Minotaur. Can be identified separately from Minny by brown fur rather than black. Not seen since 2010.
• Beepy - 9 foot tall 'cybernetic' anthropomorphic winter fur Siberian Tiger. Identifiable by obviously mechanical lower arms.

Due to a quirk in the local law, she has to maintain separate licenses in Paragon as 'Feral Storm,' 'Feral Strike,' and 'Feral Strength,' but is generally known as just Feral.

Known Powers, Abilities, and Assets

Silvia does not have any powers or extranormal abilities whatsoever. Despite her height, she is not medically classified as having dwarfism. Her intelligence has been described by most as 'superhuman,' but is not. Many of her skills are self-taught through both research and experimentation. She has been repeatedly tested for any indication whatsoever of magic, mutation, or genetic abnormality and continually come back as completely normal. In addition to her degrees, she is a world-class applied chemist, an expert in quantum mechanics and quantum physics, and has near doctorate level knowledge of select psychology topics.

Her most recognizable asset is her powered armor, though very few people even know that's what it is. All of her suits are based around her film costuming expertise, and so far past the bleeding edge, it's impossible to tell they're suits at all. They are fully emotive, including micro-expressions and instinctive movements like tails and ears. She has been observed eating and drinking in them, and demonstrated that she can when she chooses, feel contact on them. Furs and scales both look and feel nearly identical to the real thing, despite being a core component of the armoring and nearly impervious. The only visible seams or separation points are in the armor and outfits. When analyzed by the world's leading experts in various fields, without further context or making assumptions, they could not tell that Feral was not an actual minotaur or tiger with bioelectric powers.

As a fighter she is, in a word, 'terrible.' And in another, 'unstoppable.' People who have fought alongside Feral leave both impressed and horrified, often stating that if she was given a gun, they'd be terrified of friendly fire. She has no training and no natural skill, instead relying on absolute brute force and stealth. Most of her repertoire is leveraging the incredible power and weight of her suits to deliver wild swings and crushing two-handed blows. She does possess an extremely high level of tactical expertise in situations she can apply logic and science to, but falls well short when the situation involves magic or a high degree of variables. Her suits are able to take punishment that is incomprehensible even in a city full of powered beings. Even in situations where her defenses are overwhelmed, she is usually back online in a matter of moments. Some of the more notable hits that Feral has withstood without significant damage include an ambush from Captain Mako, a full strength punch from Marauder, a clothesline from Neuron that allegedly broke his arm, and both a full speed head-on collision with Statesman as well a full strength punch in response to the perceived attack. (Both were very apologetic.)

As a highly respected materials scientist, inventor, and contractor, Silvia owns and has access to technologies that even the most wealthy superheroes could only dream of. Despite this, she is known to primarily focus on 'low-tech' broadly applicable work, but protects much of it aggressively and even violently. Most of the components in her power armor are made with commercially available equipment and parts, despite the past bleeding-edge composites and alloys involved. It has been half-joked that if she was stranded on a desert island with nothing but a hair dryer, she'd leave on the most advanced yacht ever built inside of a week.

Being a sole proprietor, her government contracts are highly profitable, but much of her wealth has been made from film. It's alleged that one studio paid over $30M for a single 'reconfigurable' animatronic construction to take the place of trained animals where CG wouldn't work. She often calls studios looking for interesting challenges in costuming. She is far from cash poor, having several million dollars in liquid assets and a strong aversion to spending money. Most income is reinvested in her research, businesses, and patents. It is estimated that the equipment in her building in Kallisti Wharf is worth more than $2.5B by itself.

Silvia also owns substantial real estate assets including a large building in Kallisti Wharf, a small mixed-use warehouse in Nerva Archipelago, a small industrial building in Ames, and the family farm comprising over 400 acres outside of Ames.

Her greatest asset by far is an ability to operate and move freely, despite agencies and governments knowing full well that Silvia is Feral. She regularly goes between Paragon and the Rogue Isles, and other than licensing formalities, is generally given a free hand. This has come about because both governments have recognized that any attempt to put restrictions on her would, at best, be incredibly expensive for very little benefit. She operates as Feral rarely, and when doing so, continues to focus on groups and operations that the governments already want taken out of action.

Associates and Relationships

Silvia and her businesses are a member of numerous professional organizations including but not limited the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Defense Technology Association, Aerospace Materials Research Society, Spaceflight Engineers Association, Union of Women Scientists, and the Society of Aerospace Engineers. She is also strongly associated with Vanguard as a primary contractor, and is known to participate in high-risk operations as Feral. She also works closely with Portal Corporation in a variety of capacities, most of which are either undisclosed or classified, and has high-level access to data and resources.

When interacting with the 'super' set, it is exclusively in costume as Feral and she is incredibly protective of her privacy, drawing a sharp line between the two worlds. She is very much a social butterfly, interacting and forming relationships based on whether or not someone is interesting, likeable, or has shared morals or codes. Though she has been known to lean on others as a source for targets to take her frustrations out on.

Silvia dated almost none at all until she was into her 30's, and being from Generation X, was generally repressed. These days she describes herself as 'lesbian-leaning pansexual.'She admits to having been married to a woman in the past, but aggressively avoids the topic and refuses to give any details. She has been open about the fact that she hasn't so much as dated since 2012. Alyssia Torlaw and Silvia began a relationship in March of 2024.

Hooks

Because of the sharp line drawn between her two lives, including multiple phone numbers, tracking her down can be downright impossible. Even close associates generally don't know who she is out of costume, or how to reach her. When out of costume, she's just another face in a crowd. A sometimes memorable one, but not recognizable as anyone special.

When in costume, she has always garnered a tremendous amount of attention just from appearance alone. Despite a strong aversion to any sort of fame, Feral is very widely known and commonly recognized by anyone and everyone. During the early days, she was routinely filmed and on the news and Internet. Though with the proliferation of non-humans, confusion does sometimes occur.

During the second Rikti Invasion, Feral despite her protestations that she is not part of the superhuman crowd, was a very visible and near constant presence on the front lines. Both in direct combat and repairing Vanguard equipment.

Notable Inventions

Silvia has a number of 'world-changing' inventions to her name, but universally eschews and avoids nearly any form of public recognition for them. Many were patented under shell companies to hide her involvement.

Kevlar-W(R)

One of her earliest developments, Kevlar-W(R) is a UV and fluid-tolerant Kevlar(R) KM2 weave. It has completely supplanted Kevlar(R) KM2 for law enforcement use due to eliminating numerous maintenance and manufacturing problems. Kevlar-W(R) is exclusively manufactured by DuPont (North America) and Teijin (Rest of World) since 2005. The patent expires in 2025.

Titanium, Grade 23M

Grade 23M is a development of Titanium, Grade 23, which nearly all medical implants are made from. A fully biocompatible variant, 23M is notable for being more expensive to manufacture but far cheaper to machine into finished products, with equal strength and marginally lower risk. It was first patented in 2007 by "Engineered Biomedical LTD," and revolutionized the manufacture of custom medical implants overnight. Two manufacturers paid the modest $5,000 license fee and got immediate results. Nearly every custom orthopedic implant worldwide is now made from 23M. It was assigned an ASTM grade in 2009, and an FDA study in 2011 found that it's introduction increased availability of custom implants by 655% since 2008.

Grade 23M is most commonly referred to by physicians and surgeons as 'SilTi' due to a pronounced silver hue in finished products. At the outbreak of the second Rikti Invasion, Silvia released all patent claims, and even personally donated several large batches to local companies. Consequently, in Paragon, 'SilTi' is often backronymed to mean 'Silvia's Titanium.'

Impervium, Type 2H

Vanguard's most advanced tank armor. Details are classified, but it is known to be a multi-layered composite incorporating both ceramic and alloy layers. There is also a 2HE which is electrically conductive, and a 2HX designed for coupling to reactive systems.

Advanced Polyimide, Type 4

Developed from her first doctoral thesis, Advanced Polyimide Type 4 is the 'gold foil' shielding employed on spacecraft. (Silvia usually just calls it 'gold foil' to spare everyone the technical explanation.) First introduced in 2015. Despite the higher manufacturing costs, every spacecraft since 2015 makes at least partial use of APT4 shielding. The biggest benefit of APT4 is that despite it's high manufacturing cost, it is the only "universal" shielding. Unlike traditional MLI which requires careful analysis of orbit and exposures, APT4 is suitable for nearly any application without alteration. Where APT4 is insufficient, it can be integrated as part of MLI. This economy of scale quickly made APT4 cheaper than all forms of traditional MLI and foil shielding.

APT4's gold color comes from an aligned vapor-deposition gold/aluminum layer which provides better IR reflectance and equal radiation reflectance to traditional all gold layers. The inner layers are offered in several thermal ranges, which is combined into a composite. Like for like, APT4 can offer a 5-15% weight reduction over traditional MLI in addition to significant cost savings in design and engineering. The patents for APT4 are jointly held by ECAMS LLC, NASA, ESA, and JAXA. More than a dozen companies worldwide manufacture APT4 for government and private spaceflight.